Tapping our email

Email from a colleague. Readers, please comment.

Mary –

This has been floating around in the back of my mind for a while – but a recent editorial in the SF Chronicle saying “Institutions of higher education and other providers of Internet connections such as libraries…are under orders to upgrade their systems by spring of 2007 – so the federal cops can more readily tap email…” brought it to the forefront.

How concerned should public libraries be with this?

Jean Hofacket

Acting County Librarian

Alameda County Library

Email reprinted with permission.

Comments

[Mary]

yes - lots more info at ALA CALEA page

[Sarah Houghton (Librarian In Black)]

This is CALEA, yes?

[Katie Lane]

Unfortunately, the manner in which the FCC has defined "Internet providers" can very easily include libraries. Depending on how a library gets its Internet service to customers and branches, the Order can apply, and my understanding is that it applies to the entity as a whole, not just to specific stations. I'd love to hear a different opinion.

[Jack Stephens]

The editorial the reader refers to also mentions in passing that universities "are not at this point fighting the new order on civil-rights or privacy grounds."

Which, of course, doesn't stop the Chron from making predictable, overheated reference to "Big Brother."

[Karen Coyle]

I didn't see the article, but I believe that this has to do with regulations relating to Internet providers. Colleges and Universities provide Internet service (not just machines connected to the Internet, but actual accounts) to their users and therefore fall under the laws relating to service providers. I do not think that the open access machines in public libraries (nor in Internet cafes or Kinkos) fall under this category.

[James W. Arnold]

I see no problem as long as we start socialist police state like Nazi Germany or
Satlinist Russia. Guidelines our constitution
which secure freedom of speech !
Cordially ,
James W. Arnold